Feminism
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The Feminist Queries: Sheryl Wudunn
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Women Almost 50% of U.S. Workforce
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Are Men Really Happier than Women?
Must Read: GirlDrive
Published November 12, 2009 @ 11:20AM PT
Have you ever had the urge to grab your best friend and take a road trip across America? That's exactly what long-time friends Emma Bee Bernstein and Nona Willis Aronowitz did when they embarked on their GirlDrive project. But instead of a joyride, their road trip proved to be an extraordinary adventure in which they interviewed and photographed young women across the country, finding out what is important to them and what they think and feel about feminism.
Two years and many miles later, the long-awaited GirlDrive book (published by Seal Press) is now on the shelves. The book, which includes a gorgeous mix of photos, essays, interviews, and diary entries from their trip, is a tribute to the diversity and strength of women across the country.
From a screenwriter in LA to a burlesque star in Austin, a young mother in Madison to an artist in New York City, we view honest assessments of how these women see their place in society and get an intimate look into their struggles, hopes and fears.
The Feminist Queries: Cindy Gallop
Published October 26, 2009 @ 09:45AM PT
For today's Feminist Query, I am featuring a woman I admire very much and have been lucky enough to spend a bit of time with here in New York City. Her name is Cindy Gallop. She is half English, half Chinese, grew up in Asia, in Brunei, and read English Literature at Somerville College, Oxford. She began working in theater marketing and then moved to advertising, where she spent the majority of her career working for one agency, global creative network Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH).
She joined BBH in London in 1989 to run global accounts such as Coca-Cola, Polaroid and Ray-Ban; moved to Singapore in 1996 to help start up and run BBH Asia Pacific; and finally, moved to New York in 1998 to start up BBH US. In 2003, she was voted the "Advertising Woman of the Year" by Advertising Women of New York.
Four years ago, Cindy resigned as chairman of BBH to do something different. She now consults for clients who want to change the game in their particular sector, and who are looking for radical reinvention, as well as groundbreaking, innovative, forward-thinking strategic and executional approaches. She is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld.com, which is a simple crowdsourced web platform designed to turn good intentions into action and will launch in January 2010. She has also launched another side venture called MakeLoveNotPorn.com at TED 2009. In her "free time", Cindy acts as board adviser to a number of technology and media start-ups.
I hope you enjoy her responses as much as I did and think deeply about her question for you at the end.
Do you call yourself a feminist and if so why? When did you start identifying with the feminist movement?
I call myself a rampant feminist. I amplify that deliberately because I hate the way so many women shy away from the term 'feminist' as if it implied something negative along the lines of 'strident man-hating unfeminine harpy'. I am a self-described feminist because I believe in championing women's rights and women's issues, and doing everything I possibly can personally to help make the world a better and more advantageous place for women. Note I don't use the term 'equal' in there - we are so very, very far away from equality with men in so many respects that are not fully realized or acknowledged by either gender, that I find it hard to use that term casually.
To the second part of your question - I always have.
What were hurdles you faced as a woman in business? What is your advice for other women trying to make it to the top?
All the usual ones. My advice is, never give in to insecurity and lack of confidence - just grit your teeth and barrel through them. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.'
Show Me The Money: Why Don't More Women Ask For A Raise?
Published October 25, 2009 @ 06:51PM PT
The New York Times had an excellent op-ed this weekend by Joanne Lipman, the former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal who was also the founding editor in chief of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine.
The piece titled, "The Mismeasure of Woman" reflects on the Shriver Report and catalogs many of the issues women face today in society: the false-positive sense of equality among young women, the effect of 9/11 on women, the stalled progress of women to achieve equal pay and crash through the glass ceiling to run Fortune 500 companies, law firms and businesses.
The part of the article that may have resonated the loudest for some was how women can end up being their own worst enemy in the job market:
In my time as an editor, many, many men have come through my door asking for a raise or demanding a promotion. Guess how many women have ever asked me for a promotion?
I'll tell you. Exactly ... zero.
Sure, it's a risk to ask for a raise. But women need to take risks - and to realize that at some point they will fail. This is an incredibly hard thing to do, especially for women brought up in a culture that celebrates unrealistic perfection in every sphere, from beauty to housekeeping.
Everyday I hear from a female friend who wants to earn more money at their job, but instead of negotiating a raise, they wait for their boss to do it for them. The problem with this method is that unless they receive a promotion it is unlikely their boss will step in and offer up company profits to their employees.
Additionally, many of my female friends don't always think about negotiating the salary they want when they start a new job, which is the most crucial time to leverage a better salary. No one should ever start a new job without a desirable base pay. It is very hard to jump a salary up by 10, 20 or 30 percent after you start working. While I believe there are systematic reasons behind why white women earn 77 cents, African American women earn only 69 cents and Latinas just 59 cents to to men's dollar - it is also our responsibility to take risks, negotiate a better pay and smash the glass ceiling once and for all.
For those in a position to negotiate salary or switch jobs here are a few tips I've learned along the way about getting the pay you want and deserve:
- Look ahead. When switching jobs ask for a salary that is 5 - 10% above the money you would receive if you were promoted tomorrow at your current job. This will ensure that you aren't losing out on money you could have earned by staying in the same place.
- Stay calm and collected. Even if you are desperate for any job, don't let the prospective employer realize that. By giving specific salary demands, it shows that you know the market landscape and what is a competitive rate for the position.
- Know your self worth and market worth. Measure everything you do from how many clients you work with, how much money you've been in charge of, and the unique relationships or networks you have that no one else can claim. These things should give you an advantage in the workplace and help you speak intelligently if your boss asks you why you deserve a raise.
- Don't budge. If a new employer doesn't offer you the number you want, then try to decline the job if you can afford it. It is probably not worth it in the long run if an employer isn't willing to start you at the salary you want and need.
- Negotiate additional benefits. If you can't get the exact salary you are looking for, try to negotiate additional benefits such as vacation, sick days or the ability to consult outside the business.
Finally, Lipman's op-ed does a great job summarizing the state of reminding all of us about the most important thing with any job, relationship or endeavor: "make sure respect is part of the equation too."
Respect, above anything else, is the best currency one can negotiate with. Give respect, get respect. It can be that easy.
What are your tips for getting the pay you want and deserve?
Photo Credit: Emdot
Friday Femme Fatale: Judges, Philosphers & Victims
Published October 02, 2009 @ 04:28PM PT
Phew! Another week has gone by. And it is getting cold outside already - so it seems that Fall is in full swing - and yet, health care reform has yet to pass. Hopefully by spring?
Anyways, here's the latest in the fem-o-sphere. Enjoy.
- The Daddy Factor (Matt Yglesias)
- Do Women Make Better Judges? (Slate)
- Madonna, Motherhood, and Choices (Bitch Magazine)
- A Dearth of Women Philosophers (New York Times)
- UN Security Council Condemns Sexual Violence in War (Ms. Magazine)
- We Are All Polanski's Victims, and We All Deserve Justice (Huffington Post)
- America's Next Great Pundit (Washingtonpost.com)
- Santiago Rally Seeks to Legalize Abortion (Santiago Times)
- Committee votes down abortion amendment (The Hill)
- Abortion and Health Care Reform (New York Times)
Nominate & Vote For Your Favorite Feminist Changemaker
Published October 01, 2009 @ 12:22PM PT
So Change.org has launched a new fun initiative called the ChangeMaker Network.
This network will include a select group of prominent activists, elected officials, authors, bloggers, actors, musicians and thought leaders who have demonstrated the ability to create change on the issues that matter to them most.
Each Changemaker will be invited to write on an issue they're passionate about and have their content featured prominently on Change.org. Content produced by Changemakers will help frame the complexities of major issues, drive the public discourse toward positive and lasting solutions, and mobilize millions of people to take action.
Best of all - YOU can decide who gets to write for the Women's Rights Blog and every other blog on the site by voting for your favorite nominees.
Your vote, along with votes of the Change.org community, will be the primary factor that Change.org's team of bloggers and full-time staff will use to determine which nominated individuals should be approached about being part of the Changemakers Network. Other factors that will be considered will include diversity of background, breadth of issues covered, and capacity to drive conversation and action.
So, GO - get to it! Bring some new faces and names to Change.org. Vote on or nominate your favorite ChangeMaker today.
Who Is Your Female Labor Hero?
Published September 07, 2009 @ 04:51PM PT
In honor of Labor Day, I wanted to post a list of female labor heroes. Throughout history, women have played a significant role in transforming workers' lives - and what better day to honor those achievements than on Labor Day. Check out this list of historical moments and historical women and add your own labor hero in the comments below:
- The Uprising of 20,000 and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: In the early 1900s, young women shirtwaist makers-mostly Jewish immigrants, still in their teens-were a powerful force for change. They brought together women's rights activism and union power and ignited sweeping changes to worker safety laws.
- Atlanta's Washerwomen Strike: With slavery less than two decades behind them, thousands of black laundresses went on strike for higher wages, respect for their work and control over how their work was organized. In the summer of 1881, the laundresses took on Atlanta's business and political establishment and gained so much support that they threatened to call a general strike, which would have shut the city down.
- Mother Jones : At a time when most people believed women should stay at home or considered them surplus labor, and only one in 34 women belonged to a union, Mother Jones was one of the greatest union leaders of her era.
- Esther Peterson: Esther Peterson's courage and vision have shaped our daily lives, as workers, women and consumers. She was honored as "one of the nation's most effective and beloved catalysts for change" by the National Women's Hall of Fame.
- Leonora Barry: As the only woman to hold national office within the Knights of Labor, she brought attention to the conditions of working women through her involvement in the labor reform movement while also furthering the progress of woman's rights during the period following the Civil War and Reconstruction.
- Mary Kenney O'Sullivan: Co-founder of Women's Trade Union League and first salaried woman organizer for the American Federation of Labor.
- Dolores Huerta: Labor leader and organizer and social activist who is the co-founder of the United Farm Workers.
- Karen Nussbaum: A clerk-typist who turned her grievances about low pay and low respect for women into a national effort to organize women office workers. She is the founder of 9to5 and served as director of the 9to5 district of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton, and director of the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department. You can read her writing over at Huffington Post.
- Lucy González Parson: Early socialist activist "of color" who was a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the "Wobblies").
- Fannie Sellins: An American union organizer who worked in a garment factory to support her four children and helped to organize Local # 67 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in St. Louis, where she became a negotiator for 400 women locked out of a garment factory.
- Emma Tenayuca: A labor organizer for pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1930s and beyond. She led Mexican workers' movements in Texas.
- "Rosie the Riveter": Rosie the Riveter was most closely associated with a real woman, Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces.
Female Ambition Is Not A Curse
Published September 02, 2009 @ 07:50PM PT
I am an ambitious person. Ech, hem. I am an ambitious woman. And, apparently, according to Newsweek that distinction makes a difference.
This week the magazine unveiled a not so amusing Top 11 List of Female Ambition.
The article features the likes of Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina, Martha Stewart, Madonna, Anna Wintour, and Sarah Palin - to name a few. All of the women, except one - Yoko Ono - are white. And each article pretty much depicts the woman in question as one of two things as Allyson Kapin pointed out: a ball buster or a bitch.
While perhaps the article is meant to expose the blatant sexism thrown at women who take positions of power - is there really a need to regurgitate it? Nothing in the article is particularly empowering, but rather a reminder of just how far we need to go before this "treacherous combination" of an ambitious woman becomes palatable in the national consciousness.
Personally, I don't buy it. Newsweek did a shoddy reporting job - if it really wanted to talk about female ambition I would have made it clear that women have always been ambitious and always will. It is a natural trait. Power is nothing foreign to the female species - we are just often told it's not very "feminine" if we show it off, but that doesn't mean we aren't well acquainted with it.
For me, when I want something, I go after it - and usually if I work hard, I get it. I have been told several times in my life that I'm "intimidating" - but never a "bitch" (at least to my face). I don't apologize for my success - in fact, I try to share it and use it as a means to inspire others to achieve their dreams. I am direct, but not rude. I hold people accountable and I expect them to do the same with me. I call it like it is. If I see something happening that I don't like - I say something. I try to be an honest broker in a world which is full of deception, ulterior motives and disingenuous people - something that is always hard for me to come to terms with because I am an eternal optimist - not only for myself, but those around me. Getting to do what I want, following my dreams and standing up for myself isn't selfish in my book - it's what the boys have been doing for years.
The truth is that Newsweek missed a big point: ambitious women make this world a better place, not a "scarier" one. Without ambitious women like Cleopatra, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Zainab Salbi, Rachel Maddow, Gloria Steinam, Sojourner Truth - and many others - the world would be a much worse off in my opinion.
Female ambition is not a curse. But if you want the attention of ambitious women - I've got one clue for you, Newsweek - offending them is not usually the best route. Even ambitious women enjoy some form of flattery.
So ladies, please don't fall into this trap. You're not a bitch or a ball buster if you consider yourself ambitious. You are being exactly what you are meant to be: a woman.
Photo credit: Kyle Rush
